Dang JPH! When I first looked at him I thought he was a 6.5+ y/o deer who had probably maxed out that 8 point rack.... if he's really only 3.5 he was going to be an insanely big 8. Great deer and congrats!

Only thing I ever had mounted for a trophy animal was a turkey. I got a full strut mount as it was out in the field strutting for three hours with two hens before it finally came in. One of the hens broke to our decoy and didn't like it. A deadly decision!

Spring bird weighed 24lbs and 11" beard with 1 1/4" spurs. Cost me $650 going to have to snag a pic of it.

I agree Ohio. He is a buddy of my wife's uncle, and he does AWESOME work. His shop is just full of deer and squirrels and turkeys and raccoons and just about anything you can think of. He even had some alligator skins to tan when I dropped off the deer head.

I find myself staring at the deer when we're hanging out in the living room. My wife has always teased me about having a bro-mance with my buddy who I coach baseball with (just because we spend so much time hanging out and on the phone talking about the team and such), and the other day she made the joke that my "man-crush" has turned into a "deer-crush" since I spend so much time looking at my mount...

"When a hunter is in a tree stand with high moral values and with the proper hunting ethics and richer for the experience, that hunter is 20 feet closer to God." ~Fred Bear